Denzel Washington Did NOT Say Barack Obama “Should Get 15 Years In Prison,” Despite Report

Truth rating: 0

By
Andrew Shuster | 12:37 pm, November 22, 2017

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Denzel Washington never said former President Barack Obama “should get 15 years in prison,” despite a baseless headline on a disreputable website. Adding insult to injury, the bogus headline has nothing to do with the article it precedes. Gossip Cop can expose this ridiculous clickbait.

A blog called World Today 365 published the scandalous headline, “Denzel Washington: Barack Obama Should Get 15 Years In Prison. Do You Agree With Him?” The accompanying article, however, makes no mention of the former president at all. Instead, it references an interview the actor gave at the premiere of his movie, Fences, nearly a year ago. At the time, Washington expressed his frustration with the media, telling reporters, “If you don’t read the newspaper, you’re uninformed. If you do read it, you’re misinformed.”

During the red carpet interview, the actor continued, “What is the long-term effect of too much information? One of the effects is the need to be first, not even to be true anymore. So what a responsibility you all have; to tell the truth, not to just be first, but to tell the truth.” Washington added, “We live in a society now where it’s just first. Who cares? Get it out there. We don’t care who it hurts, we don’t care who we destroy, we don’t care if it’s true. Just say it, sell it.”

Those previously mentioned quotes were the extent of the actor’s interview. There’s no reference to President Obama whatsoever. Also, World Today 365 is quite late to the party considering that he made those statements in December 2016. It should also be noted, the deceitful site didn’t even bother to make up a story. Instead, it concocted a random and untrue headline that bears no relation to the article that follows it. Gossip Cop would call World Today 365 a “fake news” site, but it was too lazy to even make up fake news. The outlet merely invented a phony headline designed to dupe readers and generate clicks.